…….Nigeria’s Senate is A Bigger Reality Show-Keeping Up With The Akpabio’s and The Natashas”
By Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja,
Executive Director,
Nigerian Law Society (NLS).
In the year 2003 the Parliament of Canada came with legislation and Regulations that imposed liability upon both legislators and staff of its legislature who are negligent in the performance of their duties.
One of such measures is that in the event that a lawyer staff of the Parliament of Canada is negligent in their drafting of a Bill and legislation. Such lawyer staff is held liable for payment of the legal fees arising from any lawsuit arising directly from the said defective Bill or legislation. The salary of the said lawyer staff is deducted to pay the said legal fees until the litigation is exhausted.
This level of accountability breeds a high level of responsibility and time management by both legislators and staff of the Parliament of Canada!!!
In Nigeria, the drafters of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 had the intention of instilling accountability amongst legislators of both the National Assembly and the State Houses of Assembly.
This is evident by the provisions of Sections 63 and 104 of the Nigerian Constitution which provides as follows:
Section 63 of the 1999 Constitution stipulates that “the Senate and the House of Representatives shall each sit for a period of not less than one hundred and eighty-one (181) days in a year.” The same number of days is prescribed for the State Houses of Assembly.
The penalty for violating this provision is that the Presiding Officer would declare the seat of any member as vacant if such a member fails to meet the 181 sitting requirement.
However, in actual practice there are only two reported cases where this penalty has been imposed in Nigeria. In the year 1983, the then Speaker of the Bendel State House of Assembly declared the seat of one it’s members as vacant and the Supreme Court upheld the said declaration. See
_ALEGBE V. OLOYO_ (1983) Legislative Law Reports of Nigeria, Vol. 1.
And more recently the Zamfara State House of Assembly in January 2025, declared vacant the seat of a legislator whom the Speaker alleged attended only 21 days out if the stipulated 181 days of attendance per annum.
In a 2022 study by Premium Times newspaper on this matter, it was found that both the House of Representatives and Senate only sat for 70 days out of the stipulated 181 days.
In another survey that I undertook in the year 2023, of the Delta State House of Assembly, the same phenomenon repeated itself.
To make matters worse, now that Senator Natasha has filed a lawsuit against the Senate President who is supposed to be Presiding over plenary sessions of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, his attendance will be reduced considering that he has to be physically present during the court sessions.
Also, now that the wife of Senate President has filed several lawsuits against Senator Natasha, her own attendance at the plenary sessions of the Senate is not likely to meet the 181 days per annum requirement.
So it appears that the Senate is now spending more time “creating content” for a reality show for the entertainment of Nigerians than performing the legislative duties for which Senator Natasha and the Senate President were elected by constituents to perform!!!